WELCOME!

Welcome to "Barb's Free for All", my new Blog.  

I decided to start this blog so I could have a record of all the things I get for free, as well as sharing the wealth with all of you.  I mean really...what fun is getting things for free if you have no one to share the excitement with!

First let me say that I'm not going to make you any promises about keeping up with this blog.  You see I'm a chronic procrastinator and in general a very disorganized person.  So if I disappear one day, you'll know what happened.  I hope it doesn't, but I'm just warning you in advance.

Next let me fill you in on how I got involved with the world of coupons, deals and freebies.  It all started fairly recently.  My husband is self employed, and our income fluctuates a lot.  Sometimes we are wondering how we are going to keep food on the table...but God always provides!  (I guess this would be a good spot to tell you that I am a born again, saved, Bible believing Christian...which basically means I've trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.  My faith in God has gotten me through some pretty rough times).  Through the rough spots we have seen God do some amazing things.  But I decided that I needed to do my part too.  I wanted to be a good steward of the provisions that God gave us.  So that's when couponing came into the picture.  Last year I attended a homeschool convention with my daughter.  There was a couponing workshop done by Kati of www.truecouponing.com  I had used coupons before, but she had a whole new spin on it that involved keeping inserts whole and filing by date.  It's pretty neat.  I highly recommend her site.  At the time, it sounded good, but I wasn't ready for it.  About Feb. of this year, things were getting really bad financially.  I knew I needed to do something to help out.  That's when I started to put what I'd learned at the conference into practice.  I began following her system exactly, but then after I found a few other couponing sites, I ended up pulling a few ideas from each method of couponing until I had my own system worked out.

Now let me tell you I have been saving tons of money using these couponing methods.  And if you are interested in doing the same I would recommend starting with www.truecouponing.com.  But that's not what this blog is going to be about.  There are enough couponing sites out there to explain the how to coupon.

That leads me to my so called tag line of this blog:  "Cheap is Good...But Free is Better!".  I get some awesome deals using couponing, but the only deals I'll post here are ones that are absolutely FREE!  I may include some free deals that involve money out of pocket initially...as long as when all is said and done it didn't cost you anything in the end.

I'm going to start by showing you a shopping trip I made to the Mall yesterday:

I had received a Cold Water Creek catalog in the mail.  Usually there is some type of coupon attached like save $25 on a $50 purchase etc.  Honestly I usually don't really pay attention to the coupons anymore...but since I've been in coupon mode lately I've become very aware of any coupon.  I'm so glad I didn't toss this one because it said $25 gift!!!  There wasn't any purchase involved at all!  I couldn't find any clothing for that price (I think that store is a bit pricey), but found a necklace that happens to go perfect with my green and white shirt by the way, that was marked down from $39.95 to $20.99.  I had gotten a coupon from the Bath & Body Works Facebook promotion for a free travel size item up to a $6 value.  So the lotion I got for my daughter was $5 plus tax.  Plus they gave me more coupons in my bag!

Coldwater Creek Necklace:  FREE
Bath & Body Works lotion:  FREE

So you get the idea.  These are the kind of things I'll be sharing with you.  I will try to include links to coupons or websites if applicable.  The Cold Water Creek deal you'd have to have received the catalog in the mail so can't help you there.  For the Bath & Body Works deal you need to have a Facebook account.  Log in and search the Bath & Body Works Gift Cards App.  You have to send a Mother's Day Card to someone who will receive the free product coupon...and you'll get one as well.  (Warning...it prints a full color, full page coupon...so print black and white if your printer allows...maybe even on draft to save ink).

Well, that's it for my first Blog Post!  I hope to be checking back in soon!

Happy Freebies!

Barb